By David http://davidspan.com Random ramblings from an incoherent mind! Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:38:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 ByDavidhttp://feedburner.google.com Changes in my priorities http://davidspan.com/2009/03/14/changes-in-my-priorities/ http://davidspan.com/2009/03/14/changes-in-my-priorities/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:30:57 +0000 David http://davidspan.com/?p=161 After a great deal of soul searching and self discussion I have decide to drop all my open source activity. Over the last few years I have devoted a great deal of time working on various open source projects with a a great group of very talented coders. Unfortunately I have spending more time than I really should.

I’ve come to realize that it has become almost an addiction; working more than four hours a day, just about everyday. I feel I have lost time with my family and other activities I wish to pursue.

I will still be coding, but only for personal projects and those for clients. Of course any bugs I find and fix I will happily offer to the community.

]]> http://davidspan.com/2009/03/14/changes-in-my-priorities/feed/ 12 Build a quick template engine for your site http://davidspan.com/2008/04/09/build-a-quick-template-engine-for-your-site/ http://davidspan.com/2008/04/09/build-a-quick-template-engine-for-your-site/#comments Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:33:45 +0000 David http://davidspan.com/?p=43 If you have a website with more than a few pages, you may want to consider using a template engine. Template engines allow you to edit one file on your site to make changes to your entire website. This comes in very handy when you wish to redesign your website, or just make quick changes site wide.

There are a few open source option you can use like Smarty that come with a lot of features. However the learning curve can be very long. So I will show you how to build a quick and easy template engine.

First I want you to create 4 files: index.php, header.php, footer.php, and nav.php. The first file “index.php” will serve as your main file; it will also be a template for all the other pages on your site.

Files header.php, and footer.php will serve as the top and bottom of your web pages respectively. The nav.php file will be used for your navigation section on your web site.

Now open the first file (index.php) in a text editor and add the following:

<?
// This will add meta info so every page can have it’s on meta tags
$PageTitle = “my page name”;
$PageDescription = “my page description”;
$PageKeywords = “my page keywords”;
?>

<?php include(”header.php”); ?>

<?php include(”nav.php”); ?>

Your main website contents would go here, of course you can use html tags anywhere in these files, just don’t use the within the PHP tags.

<?php include(”footer.php”); ?>

Next open the header.php file and add the following:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN”>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> <?php $PageTitle ?> </TITLE>
<META NAME=”Keywords” CONTENT=”<?php $PageKeywords ?> “>
<META NAME=”Description” CONTENT=”=”<?php $PageDescription ?> “>
</HEAD>

<BODY>

Now open the nav.php file and place this code into it:

<A xhref=”index.php” mce_href=”index.php”>Home</A> <A xhref=”page2.php” mce_href=”page2.php”>Page2</A> <A xhref=”page3.php” mce_href=”page3.php”>Page3</A>

Now open the footer.php file and place this code in it:

</BODY>
</HTML>

Now save all these files and make 2 more copies of the index.php file. Name them page2.php, and page3.php. Add some contain to these pages so you can see the differences between the pages.

Upload them all to one directory on your server, and view the index.php file with your browser. If it works you should see a very simple page with links, and some text.

You can add more pages by updating the nav.php file, and adding another file based on the index.php file.

Another tip I should include is to use cascading style sheets (CSS).

If this all seem too much for you, consider a content management system (CMS). There is a large selection of them to choose from. My favorite is Website Baker.

One last word of warning, never include a file as a variable like this:
<?php include($MyFile); ?>

This will open a serious security hole that will allow users to include their own PHP files.

]]> http://davidspan.com/2008/04/09/build-a-quick-template-engine-for-your-site/feed/ 25 Install Fireworks on Ubuntu http://davidspan.com/2006/10/31/install-fireworks-on-ubuntu/ http://davidspan.com/2006/10/31/install-fireworks-on-ubuntu/#comments Wed, 01 Nov 2006 05:45:57 +0000 David http://davidspan.com/2006/10/31/install-fireworks-on-ubuntu/ Fireworks

When I installed Ububto on my laptop I decided to learn Gimp. Well that didn’t go very well, so I tried a few others. But after a week I must say they just don’t toe the line, at least not for me.

Don’t get me wrong; they all have their benefits. However I have been using fireworks for a very long time. I know it to well and realy lack the time to learn gimp.

So what follows is how I installed fireworks.

First you need to install wine. I won’t go into that now but you can follow the directions here: Ubuntu wiki
Then insert the cd into your cdrom. cd to your cd dir and type: wine setup.exe
If all goes well the setup window will popup. Just follow the screens. When the install finishes open a terminal and type

wine '/home/david/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Macromedia/Fireworks MX/Fireworks.exe'
If you get an error like this:

err:module:import_dll Library MSVCP60.dll (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Macromedia\\Fireworks MX\\Plug-Ins\\Gemstone.dll") not found
err:module:import_dll Library MFC42.DLL (which is needed by L"C:\\Program Files\\Macromedia\\Fireworks MX\\Plug-Ins\\Gemstone.dll") not found

You’ll need to download the missing dlls(MSVCP60.dll, MFC42.DLL). just search for them on google the put them in

/home/david/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32 (make sure you use your username)

Then try it again. You may get new dll errors just find the new missing dlls and repeat the process.

When your done you can add a custom launcher to your Panel:

left click on you panel and click “add to panel” then “Custom Application Launcher”

under name put Fireworks

under command: wine '/home/david/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Macromedia/Fireworks MX/Fireworks.exe'

]]> http://davidspan.com/2006/10/31/install-fireworks-on-ubuntu/feed/ 3 Strange Discovery…. http://davidspan.com/2006/10/27/strange-discovery/ http://davidspan.com/2006/10/27/strange-discovery/#comments Fri, 27 Oct 2006 22:33:13 +0000 David http://davidspan.com/2006/10/27/strange-discovery%e2%80%a6/ There were rumors not to long ago about Google, Firefox & Ubuntu working together to build a OS to rival MS Windows. The rumors were quickly shutdown by Google. However there may more to it than we all thought……

You see 2 weeks ago I installed Ubuntu on my laptop, and one of the first strange things I noticed was Google showed up strangely in Firefox It looks like this:

Screenshot-free - Google Search - Firefox
If you look closely you will see the search links that normally appear above the search box are running down the left side of the page.

Now if you view the page in a different browser while still using Ubuntu you will find the layout we are all familiar with. Now save the page and open it in Firefox. You’ll get this:

Screenshot-free - Google Search - Firefox-1
What does this mean…. Well you see Google is using server side software to to publish different layouts for users with both Firefox and Ubuntu.

I tried using Firefox on window, and I tried it with Firefox 1.6 and 2….

So it begs the question…. Why?……

]]> http://davidspan.com/2006/10/27/strange-discovery/feed/ 2 How Not To Promote http://davidspan.com/2006/09/07/how-not-to-promote/ http://davidspan.com/2006/09/07/how-not-to-promote/#comments Thu, 07 Sep 2006 22:25:38 +0000 David http://davidspan.com/2006/09/07/how-not-to-promote/ How Not To Promote

I spend a good part of my day promoting my websites, and searching for new ways to promote them. And everyday I find a lot of really good ways ruin your site’s future success. Why you may ask? Well it’s really very simple, as you will see.

In this article I will outline several promotional methods that just do not work, or will cause you headaches later.

Click/Traffic Exchanges

On the surface these sites look great, and can bring many visitors to your site. However most of these visitors will have absolutely NO interest in your site. In fact these visitors will not even read your well crafted content. There only purpose for their visit is to get someone else to view their site.

The other disadvantage is lack of targeting. Even exchanges that promise targeted visitors, cannot possible achieve this. Simply put; 98% of the users are tiring to sell you on the newest promotion techniques, or get rich quick schemes.

Free-4-All Links

These sites used to be a good way to get your site noticed – when Matt Wright first invented the concept. It was meant to be a rewarding thank you for visiting a web site. But like most great innovations it quickly soured.

You will be hard pressed to find a free4all links page that does not require an email address – in which to spam your socks off. Or will you find one that will keep your site listed for more than a few moments.

Between the spam you’ll receive, and the fact that your site will only be listed for the time it takes you to get your first wave of spam, your link will have expired. Not only will it waste your time today, but you will be on the spammer’s list for the life of your email account.

Owning a free4all links page isn’t much better! Sure you may send your message to thousands everyday, but that message has little chance of review. Most submitters use a second “for spam only” email address or use a spam box. Sure, they may login to that account, but just to clean it out.

Your only achievement of owning a free4all links page will be your email address and server blocked and banded from your customers servers. They will not get your conformation email when you send them with the details of their order.

Link Trading/Reciprocal Links

If you’ve owned a site for awhile you have no doubt received emails asking for a reciprocal link. In other words I’ll put a link on my site to your site, if you do the same for me. Take a look at these offers skeptically and you’ll find the offer is not quite what it seems.

First for the link to do you any good, it should be on a site that is related to your site. Would a link from a site that sells eggplant seeds send you qualified leads/clicks for your electronics website?

The second problem with this offer is the site offering the link, usually has a directory somewhere on his site that your link will go into. Most of the time they will have a link on their front page to that directory which few people will view.

You will often hear the term “Page Rank” when offered a link trade request. Try not to put much weight on this ideal. Sure, page rank is important, however it will not help you sell your good or services if your page rank is built sloppily. Your links must be on relevant sites in order to be of any benefit.

Safe List

Safe list marketing attracts a large portion of internet marketers. They are sold as a tried a true way to market your services. At some point it may have been, but not anymore. When you sign up for these lists they ask you for 2 emails addresses, one; your contact email, and the second; to receive ads for others using the safe list. What do you think happens to the ads you place in these safe lists? They never get read, so your speaking to deaf ear.

Safe lists come in many different forms. But they will all reveal the same results, a big waste of your time, and talent.

In Closing

Take your time to research promotional opportunities, and remember that good result come from hard work and time. There is no quick fix! Anyone that offers you immediate results is not offering you targeted visitors.

When you take your time to find real ways to get your target audience to your site you will be rewarded.

David Span writes on many different topics. You can learn more about him at his website http://DavidSpan.com Here you will find more of his articles.

]]> http://davidspan.com/2006/09/07/how-not-to-promote/feed/ 7 Advertising in forums http://davidspan.com/2006/08/25/advertising-in-forums/ http://davidspan.com/2006/08/25/advertising-in-forums/#comments Fri, 25 Aug 2006 21:33:46 +0000 David http://davidspan.com/?p=44 Most forum owners will not allow blatant advertisements on their site. However – with that in mind – there are a few ways to use forums to connect with your target audience, while keeping you from the blacklist.

Step 1, Finding the right forums

This is not just the first step; it’s the most crucial step. If you pick the wrong forum, you’re just wasting your time and effort. When searching for the appropriate forum, keep in mind your target audience. If you’re selling website design services, search Google for “html help form” or “css help forum”. It shouldn’t take you long to find the forms that fit your needs.

Step 2, Find the rules

Most forum owners have established rules that govern their site. You can find these rules in one of two places. The first place to look is in forum agreement, (above the check box you have to click before signing up.) or within the forum it’s self.

Some forums will have a spot for ads; others will not allow any advertising at all. But don’t worry I’ll show you how to get around this.

Make sure you know the rules toughly before you make your first post. Sometimes your first offence can have you banned for life.

Step 3, Your Signature

Within your profile on the forum you will find a place for your signature. Most users will use this spot for a joke, quote or even their contact info. But we are going to use it for something better. Here is your chance to add a subtle ad, one that will not get you banned. Take your time craft it cleverly! Remember you can always change it latter and with most forums’ software all your post will change with it.

Here is a good example:

For a good read
davidspan.com

Keep it short and very simple. Most users will not take the time to read it, but will absorb it without thinking. The more post you make the more likely they will be to remember it.

Also make sure it’s clickable, the user will be more willing to click than type.

Step 4, Help out

Know here’s how you’ll get your foot in the door. Find a user with a question you can answer, and help them. You’ll be amazed at all the help you can give. Your new friend will remember you as a friend that helped them with a difficult problem. The more you help, the more you advertise!

Plus you’ll be hanging out with people that you have something in common with. So not only are you working, you’re having fun doing it.

One Last Word

On many forums you’ll find a special place for advertising. These threads are helpful, but not very effective. Here’s why; only three types of users will see your ad here, those that are placing ads their self and those that are thinking of placing there ad. The first two users will look at your ads as a template for their own. The third user will be shoppers but, these shoppers will move on quickly thinking you haven’t invested in this ad so you have no money for advertising.

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